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About

Angela has kept the majority of her past and personal life a secret, but makes it clear that her family means everything to her, and as such suffered greatly following Arthur's "suicide", and aids her children, and grandchildren, in their respective quests to save the world. In certain episodes, however, a more darker and cold-blooded side of Angela's personality was revealed to exist, though generally she is working for the greater good.

Character History

Angela is taken in by the NYPD for shoplifting socks. In doing this, she worries her son Nathan, while Peter, her younger son, sees it as a cry for attention. The next day, she sees Peter in the hospital and confesses to him that his father died of suicide, telling him she is worried he may be developing the same condition. She tells Peter that he always was her favorite son. Later, she expresses concern for Peter when Nathan claims his jump was a suicide attempt.

A few days later, Angela plans a family brunch with Heidi to help Nathan's campaign. The brunch is interrupted by Peter who suggests that he is not good enough to attend, but eventually saves Nathan in the interview with Oliver Dennison.

During the next two weeks she spends her time worried about a comatose Peter, fearing he may die of a heart attack. When Peter awakens and leaves in a rage, she is upset that Peter would keep her worried for these two weeks and just leave. Within the next few days, she persuades Nathan not to meet his long-lost daughter and bribeMeredith to end the situation.

When Claire comes to New York City to find Peter, she is instead greeted by Angela. She reveals she is Claire's grandmother. She explains to Claire about her biological parents and the fire, urging Claire to come with her to Paris, but then Mohinder arrives with Peter's dead body. When Peter is revived, she tells Peter she has long known about his abilities. Later on, she claims to also know about Linderman's plans. When Peter dreams of his mother talking to the lateCharles, she states she thinks Nathan will be who people turn to after the explosion. Angela tries to get Claire out of the city, saying the bomb is inevitable; however, Claire disagrees and flees from Angela.

Angela continues to lie to Sylar, and soon finds Peter attacking him within his cell. Peter snaps Sylar's neck and attacks Angela, attempting to slice open her skull. Sylar saves her and Angela has Peter drugged and soon meets with Nathan and Tracy Strauss. Angela reveals that The Company gave Niki, Tracy, Barbara, Nathan and many other people their abilities via a synthetic injection. Angela has another dream, during which she witnesses the deaths of Tracy, Nathan and Peter at the hands of her thought to be dead husband. Arthur then causes Angela to go into a coma.

Via a spirit walk, Hiro learns that Angela attempted to kill Arthur after he used his telepathic powers to manipulate her mind and make her agree with the plan to murder Nathan. Angela also somehow enters Sylar's dreams and manages to wake him up from his induced coma. Matt Parkman uses his powers to enter Angela's comatose mind and battles Arthur to free her. Finally Angela is able to use Matt and Daphne's love for each other to remind Arthur of their own love and he lets her go allowing Matt to bring her out of her coma. Once Angela awakens, she is rejoined with Claire, Peter, Nathan, Matt and Daphne. Angela takes Claire to Noah and prepares the Company for war with Pinehearst. Before Angela, Noah, Meredith and Claire can leave for Pinehearst, Sylar arrives and locks them inside Primatech. Sylar manages to capture Angela and interrogates her on the fact that she is not his birth mother. As Angela confesses her true knowledge of Sylar's parents, Claire shows up and kills him.

After the destruction of both Primatech and Pinehearst, Angela and one of her employees abduct Rachel Mills and interrogate her to learn the location of the last vial of The formula. After locating it, Angela returns to New York and spends a few months looking at colleges with Claire. Angela is contacted by Nathan, who tells her to keep Claire away from Peter and Matt. After the crash of Flight 195, Nathan calls Angela again and recounts exactly what happened. Angela refuses to help Nathan. Through the memories of Noah, it is revealed that Angela shut down the Company in order to rebuild her family. In present time, Noah and Angela meet and discuss plans to stop the hunt for evolved humans from the inside.

Nathan suspects Angela of being Rebel but she denies the claims. She soon receives a visit from Emile Danko and is questioned about Nathan's possible powers. After Danko takes over the operation, Angela becomes a target of the government. Using her dreams, Angela avoids capture and receives help from one of her friends. Peter rescues Angela and takes her to the church where she was married. Angela reveals details about her past, including the manifestation of her dreams and existence of a sister. Angela has Peter take her to the Coyote Sands, a location which she also gets Nathan, Claire and Noah to travel to. Once everyone is gathered, Angela has everyone start to dig up the shallow graves of the former prisoners.

Angela recounts her time at Coyote Sands, arriving there with her family at the age of 16. She remembers how close she was to her sister and her first meeting with Charles Deveaux, Linderman and Bob. She tells her family what happened at the camp and reveals that she escaped with her friends and when she returned, everything was gone, including her family. A vicious storm arises, caused by Alice's power, and Angela is taken to her sister’s bunker. Angela reveals to Alice that she lied to her and Alice leaves her, refusing to rejoin Angela’s family. Angela, Peter, Nathan, Noah and Claire go to the diner and all agree to form a new company.

After learning that Sylar has taken Nathan's appearance, Angela, Noah and Claire attempt to drive to Washington. Noah has the ladies get out of the car as he suspects a government ambush to be coming. Angela and Claire arrive at Washington and the two part ways. Angela makes her way to a bus stop where she meets with Matt. She reveals that she had a dream that Nathan was in danger but that Matt would save him, and eventually convinces Matt to follow her. After finding Nathan's dead body at the Stanton Hotel, a distraught and grieving Angela has Matt use his powers to force Sylar to think he is Nathan, effectively "recreating" her son and "killing" Sylar.

Five weeks later, Angela visits the new "Nathan" in his office. She expresses her worry for him, a worry which is furthered when Sylar/Nathan ignores her and unwittingly uses his ability to fix a clock.

After reading about several mysterious drownings and making the connection to Tracy Strauss, Angela calls Noah and demands that he kill Tracy before she gets to him or Nathan. Noah reminds Angela that "Nathan" is actually Sylar, and says that he can barely look him in the eye knowing who he really is. "Nathan" tells her that he hasn't been feeling like himself, so Angela calls Matt and pleads with him to "patch" "Nathan"
up so that he starts feeling more like the real Nathan again. Matt refuses, telling her that he also regrets turning Sylar into "Nathan", and that "Nathan" is her problem now. Later, Angela visits Peter in his apartment, but is too worried about "Nathan" to focus on what he has to say.

When "Nathan" returns from the carnival, Angela sends René to wipe "Nathan"'s and Peter's memories, but René finds that he cannot do it. René tells Peter that Angela is blinded by her emotions, and that she had crossed a line that should never be crossed. On Thanksgiving, Angela is confronted by Peter and "Nathan", both of whom demand to know the truth about "Nathan". Angela eventually gives in and tells them that she had Matt transfer Nathan's mind into Sylar's shapeshifted body so that she wouldn't have to come to terms with Nathan's death. At this revelation, Sylar takes back control of his body and telekinetically forces Angela and Peter to sit and eat next to him. When Sylar grows bored of mocking them, and tries to kill Angela, Nathan's mind takes back control of Sylar's body and flies away in it. Angela and Peter share their grief over Nathan's death and pay their respects at his funeral.

Later, When Angela sees Peter with Emma, she freezes and warns him that Emma will kill thousands of people. Not believing that Emma could do such a thing, Peter replicates Angela's ability to dream it for himself. After dreaming that Emma is saved by Sylar, Peter tells his mother what he dreamed. Angela warns him that just because he dreamed that Sylar will save Emma, that doesn't mean that Sylar has changed. She also insists that he be careful, since she can't bear to lose another son.

Angela has the ability to see the future while dreaming. She also seems able to appear in other people's dreams, as she used this aspect of her power to wake Sylar and get him save Peter, even while she was trapped in her own mind (Eris Quod Sum).

In order to use this ability, Angela's sleep must come naturally without the aid of drugs or other forces. (Into Asylum) She also claims that her dreams always come true and can't be changed, though this may be a mistake as Peter has been able to change the outcome of his dreams. While in a dream-state, people with telepathy are able to enter the dreams and interact with her as seen with Arthur.

Angela's dreams do not always show the full picture as seen with her believing Emma Coolidge was going to murder thousands of innocent people due to one of her dreams, (Close to You) when in reality she was being forced to do so by Eric Doyle. (Brave New World) In her dream of the H.E.L.E., she foresaw a third faceless figure helping to save the world, but had no idea of who it was or what the figure's purpose was until years later. (Project Reborn)

"I was just like you, my head in the clouds, full of hope. I was gonna be a teacher. And then my power manifested and the dreams came, visions of a bloody future of deceit and death, the Apocalypse. And when I awoke, I tried to warn everyone, but no one would listen."

Angela describes to Peter how after gaining her abilities, she tried to convince people about the terrible things she saw in her dreams, but nobody believed her. In Greek mythology, the character Cassandra [1] is similarly blessed with the gift of prophecy and was also cursed with people not believing her visions.

Trivia

Angela Petrelli's character was named for Angela Lansbury. In the commentary for How to Stop an Exploding Man, Tim Kring said he wanted to name Angela's character in honor of "Mrs. Iselin" from The Manchurian Candidate. However, Tim couldn't remember the character's name (Eleanor), so he named Mrs. Petrelli after the actress who portrayed "Mrs. Iselin"--Angela Lansbury.

Eleanor Iselin was renamed Eleanor Shaw in the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Coincidentally, Angela's maiden name is also Shaw.

In the script for the unaired pilot, Angela was named "Alice Cambell", a 76-year-old woman.

Angela was the first character to appear in an episode, a graphic novel, a webisode, and an iStory chapter. Her first episodic appearance was in Genesis, her first graphic novel appearance was in War Buddies, Part 5, her first webisode appearance was in Going Postal, Part 3 and her first iStory appearance is in chapter 104 of Operation Splinter.

In Genesis, Angela Petrelli is arrested for stealing a pair of socks. The reason for this is only explained after an interval of 56 episodes, in 1961, when Angela tells her sister Alice Shaw "whenever I feel lost... whenever I don't know what to do... I steal socks for you. To remind myself there are simple ways to protect the ones we love." For a time, this was the plot mystery that took the longest to be resolved in Heroes.